SocraticGadfly: I’m suing Kay Hagan for defamation

October 31, 2008

I’m suing Kay Hagan for defamation

If Elizabeth Dole’s North Carolina Democratic Senate challenger can sue Dole for defamation over a TV ad linking Hagan to an atheist, then surely I can sue Hagan for defaming atheism with her lawsuit against Dole.

Per ABC, the ad talks about Hagan’s Sept. 15 appearance at a Boston fundraiser hosted by Woody Kaplan, on the advisory board of the Godless Americans Political Action Committee. At the end of the ad, Hagan's photo is front and center, but the audio is of a female voice saying, “There is no God.” The effect is to make it seem like it is Hagan's voice when, in fact, it belongs to Ellen Johnson, the executive director of the Godless Americans PAC.

Beyond that, ABC’s blog claiming the ad is “deceptive” with the voiceover may be phrasing things too strongly. It uses a static photo of Hagan, not a video clip, so you can tell she’s not mouthing the words. Anybody who believes that the voice actually is Hagan’s when it accompanies a still photo is a box of rocks too dumb to deserve the right to vote anyway.

Anyway, here’s the video link; judge for yourself.

That said, Hagan’s filing just starts the process of a suit, which she has 20 days to initiate. In other words, this is political posturing over atheism. Feigned outrage even more hypocritical than real outrage.

It’s batshit people like this who should know better that is the reason people say they’d be more likely to vote for a gay, even, than an atheist for president.

Many Democrats, in talking about the various ethical challenges of the McCain-Palin campaign, like to use the line, “If Obama did this, what would the media say?”

Well, I’m going to turn that on its head.

If Dole ran a similar ad about Hagan associating with gays, what would the media say?

And, if Hagan filed a lawsuit over such an ad, what would the media say about that?

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